The Cincinnati Bengals are one of just a handful of teams that are good on third down on both offense and defense. Here’s a look at where they stand heading into today’s game against the Bills.

Cincinnati ranks 8th in third down conversion percentage on offense (41.2%) and 7th in third down defense (33.3%). They’re one of just five NFL clubs to rank in the top 10 on both sides of the ball on third down. Here are the other clubs that currently rank in the top 10 on third down on offense and defense through Week 5.

It’s a bit of a strange quirk for the Cincinnati Bengals, not only this season, but in past seasons as well. In 2013 they’ve beaten quarterbacks like Ben Roethlisberger, Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady. On the other hand they lost to Cleveland’s Brian Hoyer in his first NFL start. And the list for Cincinnati doesn’t end there.

Through five games the Bills have just four kick returns as they’ve faced some big-legged kickers who have not given their return unit an opportunity to improve Buffalo’s field position beyond the 20-yard line. This week however, could prove to be different.

Buffalo’s four kick returns rank 31st in the league in terms of opportunity. Only Atlanta has had fewer chances to return kicks with just three through five games.

Naturally Buffalo’s touchback percentage is the second-highest in the league through five games at 86.7 percent (26 touchbacks on 30 kickoffs). Again Atlanta is the only team with a higher rate and they’re a dome team.

This week the Bills face a Cincinnati kickoff man in Mike Nugent, who ranks 30th in the league in kickoff touchback percentage. Less than half the time has Nugent successfully forced Bengals opponents to take a touchback on a kickoff (10-22, 45.5%).

For Marquise Goodwin, who returns to the lineup this week from a broken hand, those are kickoff percentages he’s ready to work with.

“We’ve had four kick returns and I have zero, so I’m really looking forward to it,” Goodwin told Buffalobills.com. “It’s been a journey for our team and coach (Danny Crossman) always expresses to us in the meetings that it’s all about opportunity and we don’t get many. So hopefully we’ll get a few more opportunities this week to try to maximize field position for the offense to get us rolling. So if he kicks them in bounds we’ll try to get as many as we can and return and get good field position.”

A broken hand is not an easy injury from which to return for a wide receiver. Coming out of surgery and the removal of the cast Marquise Goodwin’s hand had little to no grip strength. Buffalo’s athletic training staff has remedied that with a host of hand strengthening tools for the receiver.

“I remember when I first got the cast off I could barely hold a ball in my hand, let alone holding a tissue without my hand being sore,” Goodwin told Buffalobills.com. “But now I’ve got some pretty good grip strength so I’m able to catch the ball and hold onto it better. I’m just trying to get it stronger and stronger each week.”

Here’s a look at one of the hand “gadgets” as Goodwin calls them.

It’s similar to a stress ball, but with rubber band loops around the outside. Goodwin slides his fingers in the rubber band loops so he has to work to open his hand just as hard as he has to work to close his hand to squeeze the ball.

“This one is for opening and closing, just a lot of things to strengthen my fingers and my hand,” Goodwin said.

Goodwin feels he has made noticeable progress with his hand strength, which is important knowing Bengals defenders will be making every effort to slap the ball out of his hand on returns and after receptions on Sunday.

“That defense is really good at going after the ball and stripping the ball,” said Goodwin. “Ball security is going to be a big deal this game and knowing I have a hand injury they’re going to come right for it. So I’ve got to hold it high and tight with both hands and maintain possession of the ball.”

Bills head coach Doug Marrone said he was going to speak with Stevie Johnson late Thursday to check in with his wide receiver, who is traveling back from the west coast after attending a family funeral. Even though he did touch base with his top wideout, there’s a lot of information that still has to be gathered when he sits down with Johnson upon his arrival back in Buffalo concerning his status for Sunday’s game.

“I spoke to him yesterday. He’s coming in today,” said Marrone. “I really don’t know until the trainers look at him and see how he’s feeling. It’s a long flight. After we talk to him it can either be yes he’s playing or we might have to wait and make it a game time decision. But I’m not really sure right now. I really think it’s still day to day.”

Marrone explained that he has to make sure that Johnson is right physically coming off the lower back injury from last week’s game and right mentally after losing a close family member this week.

“For me there are two situations,” Marrone said. “One is obviously the injury, which hasn’t been able to be treated as well as it would be if he was here. He’s traveling a long distance to the west coast. Then the mental part of it where it’s really tough on him. It’s someone he was very close with and there’s family involved so mentally you have to see where he is at also.”

Johnson’s official status for Sunday’s game will be provided this afternoon.

Here’s the update on the Bengals injury situation heading into Sunday’s game wit the Bills.

The only big news is it appears that CB Leon Hall will be able to return to the lineup after being out with a hamstring injury, though he has only practiced on a limited basis this week. Starting DE Michael Johnson however, is expected to miss Sunday’s game after suffering a concussion last week.

Anytime a new quarterback enters the starting lineup there is an adjustment to be made by the other 10 players on offense, especially when the new signal caller hasn’t had a lot of snaps with the first unit. Such is the case for the Bills this week with Thad Lewis now in at quarterback. Here is where some of the changes lie for the other 10 on Buffalo’s offensive unit.

“Major things that we’ll just have to get used to are just snap counts and things like that. The way he calls the cadence, how he takes control of the no-huddle,” said Fred Jackson. “As far as play calling I don’t see much changing at all. We’ll just have to do whatever we can to make him comfortable. Do whatever we can as skill positions to make his job easier.”

For Jackson and C.J. Spiller that means providing an effective ground game for Lewis to work off of with play action passing and some deep shots here and there.

“If we can get the running game started early it’ll take a lot of pressure off of him. Take a lot of pressure off our receivers and make their job easy,” Jackson said. “That’s what we want to get done. That’s what myself, C.J. (Spiller), the offensive line, what we’re going to pride ourselves on is going out and being able to get this running game going early and taking a lot of pressure off of those guys.”

Of course lining up with an unproven quarterback, Jackson and Spiller are expecting a lot of eight man fronts from the Bengals on Sunday. But that’s much of what they’ve seen the past few games with a rookie QB in the lineup anyway.

“It’ll be the same situation,” said Jackson. “They’re going to do everything they can to get us out of the running game and make him beat them. I know that’s the challenge he’s looking forward to. It’s a challenge we’re looking forward to. To be able to establish that running game like we’ve been able to thus far this year and hopefully we can continue to do that and get better at doing it.”

For a quarterback with just one start on his NFL resume, Sunday’s game against the Bengals might seem a bit daunting, but Bills QB Thad Lewis is not the least bit nervous about his first start with Buffalo.

“No nerves at all,” said Lewis. “I’ve done if before. I’m still playing football. It’s not like anything changed. I’m doing the same thing I’ve done, I’m just able to play this Sunday.”

Bills head coach Doug Marrone indicated earlier this week that there are no restrictions with Lewis concerning the playbook and installing a game plan this week. Lewis confirmed Marrone’s statement.

“My command of this offense is high, it’s not like I’m going in there and coach says we can’t run this because you can’t do
it,” said Lewis. “He’s putting in the game plan, I’m putting in the time I need to to prepare to run this game plan, and we’re going to run it.”

The Bills defensive staff was working hard to scrounge up tape on last week’s opposing QB Brian Hoyer. With just two games in Cleveland’s offense, Mike Pettine had to dig a little deeper for Hoyer footage. The Cincinnati Bengals will be doing much the same this week as they try to prepare for Bills QB Thad Lewis.

Cincinnati DC Mike Zimmer has already been through the process before having had to prepare for Hoyer the week prior to the Bills game against the Browns, but Cincinnati lost to Cleveland two weeks ago.

Bills CB Stephon Gilmore is getting very close to returning to the lineup after suffering a broken wrist that required surgery back in late August.

Originally given a prognosis of 6-8 weeks, this is week 6 in his recovery. Already medically cleared to practice, Gilmore provided an update on when he will be the pins removed from his wrist.

“I’ll get them out (Tuesday), depends on how my wrist feels, I’ll probably wear a little hard case on it, listen to the trainers and go from there,” said Gilmore. “I’m going to practice, see what the coaches want me to do. Take it from there.”

Gilmore intends to play with a protective plastic brace on his wrist.

“It’s something I have to deal with. I had the surgery. I have to wear it to protect it from pain, if it’s pain,” he said. “Eventually, I wont have to wear it. You got to adjust a little bit and get used to it.”

Gilmore doesn’t have the green light yet for Sunday’s game, but if he does return to the lineup it would be a heck of an assignment as he could be matched up with Cincinnati WR A.J. Green.

“I’m real eager, I just want to do what I can to get back on the field to help this team produce wins,” he said. “Whatever I can do to help the team win, I’m down for it.”

In the moments after the dramatic comeback win over New England last Sunday several Bills were referencing their comeback win against Cincinnati in Week 11 last year when they came from 17 down at halftime to win 49-31. Ryan Fitzpatrick and Stevie Johnson recalled their conversation at halftime of that game.

“I remember Stevie asking me if I had ever come back from a deficit that big and I was just kind of talking to him about my first NFL game, the first one I got into, I said, ‘Yeah,'” said Fitzpatrick. “I told him about it at halftime and he said, ‘OK, let’s go do it.’ And that’s what we did.”

“Just in the huddle I was asking Fitz if he’s ever had a comeback,” said Johnson. “He told me he was a part of one. And I was like, ‘Let’s do it.’ And he said, ‘Let’s go.’”

Every NFL coach expects to win every week and Cincinnati coach Marvin Lewis apparently is pretty confident his team is going to even their record at 2-2 when they host the Bills on Sunday.

“We just have to continue to work at the things we’re not doing as well,” said Lewis of his young team. “There’s really not a big change. We’re early in the year. We’ve got a lot of season ahead of us. And you know, at the end of this week when we’re 2-2, there’s going to be probably the other third of the league that’s going to be in the same situation. So I think we have to understand that.”

Lewis made these comments pretty early in the week, and while a coach has to lead confidently I don’t know if you want to make those feelings public for a Bills team that is rolling. Buffalo’s players will have plenty of time to read and digest Lewis’ belief that his team is going to post a victory and prepare accordingly.

In ending their 15-game losing streak to the New England Patriots, the Buffalo Bills not only ended the longest current win streak by one NFL club over another, they also now own the longest current winning streak over an opponent.

The Patriots’ 15-game streak was the longest current active streak in the league, until it was broken Sunday in Buffalo’s 34-31 win over New England. The longest one is now Buffalo’s current win streak over the Cincinnati Bengals.

Buffalo has won 10 in a row against Cincinnati dating back to the AFC Championship game on Jan. 8th, 1989. Buffalo has won 10 straight since then, and ironically face the Bengals in Cincinnati this coming Sunday.